Nardi Restaurant
3415 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Menu: https://www.doordash.com/store/nardi-restaurant-oakland-41183795/98342146/?srsltid=AfmBOorN11gjVmgekJEyFnUkXtpINb0ou-VBjYWCAImb6tMJbcdJh82- (note: there’s a few dishes missing from the DoorDash menu. Nardi has no website or social media. Do not confuse this Nardi with Nardi’s Tavern!)
Review Date: March 10, 2026
Nardi Restaurant opened February 2026 in the Pill Hill neighborhood, next to the now-closed Taste of Denmark bakery. Chef/owner is Nardos Alemu. EBTimes reviewer called the interior “warm and inviting,” although IOHO it is several levels below the lovely Lemat/Berkeley or even the iconic Asmara/Oakland.
Area is considered “semi-sketchy” and this particular stretch remains a little dicey, especially at night. Nardi is the only “Open” sign, surrounded by boarded windows, graffiti-decorated storefront, and steel security gates. Its storefront is the right half *only* of the old Phat Matt’s site, so the small neon “Open” in the narrow window is squeezed between three shuttered storefronts. It’s *very* easy when driving at night to miss the restaurant and go past it! Portions looked small compared to certain Y. photos. But we had more than enough food to make our own *fit fit* entrée – we brought home enough for a generous lunch for Spouse the next day (torn pieces of *injera* mixed with meat and/or vegetable stews, a traditional way to use up leftovers).
#1 Nardi Special: Very Spicy. House specialty featuring a generous assortment of seasoned meats and vegetables, served with injera.
Two of the three meat portions on the main platter were Beef Tibs, according to the waitress; the other was a Chicken Tibs. Beef was very good, although not super-super-spicy. Chicken tibs was also very good, although milder than the beef. The waitress asked us how hot we wanted the food, but although we assured her we love spicy food, what came was a level below what we would call truly spicy.
However, we brought leftovers home, and Spouse assured me the food did indeed get hotter overnight! The heat is not the “instant flame” on your lips of a habanero or Ghost chile, but instead one that warms the back of your throat and builds up the heat there.
Both lentil dishes were drier and chunkier than we’re used to seeing. In fact, all the dishes had relatively little gravy. It points up how most Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants extend their proteins by making a large amount of gravy, similar to Indian restaurants. But Nardi’s dishes are more like the intense “dry-fried” sauces that distinguish Indonesian rendang and Nepali kashiko pakku from their saucier (and cheaper) stews.
Saffron cabbage had good knifework, with even, thin slices. I always love the slight bitterness of turmeric. The gomen was particularly noteworthy. Spouse is very sensitive to old/reused cooking oils, so he has disliked many of the gomen dishes we’ve gotten from other Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants. But he praised Nardi’s vegetarian dishes as consistently good, with no off-flavors. I appreciated the distinctive taste of the niter kibbeh in the gomen, the iconic spiced butter which is the basis of many Ethiopian/Eritrean dishes. Fewer and fewer restaurants are using the niter kibbeh any longer, subbing cheaper vegetable oils instead.
**#10 Meat Agelgil:** A variety of spiced beef and lamb dishes served together with injera. We *tried* to order this dish. What we received instead was a small iron casserole containing spicy raw beef cubes, crumbled semi-soft cheese, and more *gomen.* Possibly one of the Beef Tibs portions on the Special was part of the Agelgil order, however.
I identified the cubes as Gored Gored, although Nardi’s menu describing it as “lightly seasoned” is not accurate. The taste is excellent but it was hotter with chile heat than the beef tibs. I didn’t care for the Gored, finding the meat chewy – it was clearly chuck. Spouse doesn’t mind some chew to his meat, but it was also unpleasantly gristle-y, which is why I think it was chuck steak. We would not re-order this again unless they change to a more tender beef cut.
The cheese was highly fermented, tasting almost exactly like plain yogurt tastes. This means it was probably ititu, not the more common ayib. Both are fermented milk cheeses, but ititu is more strongly fermented. Although we haven’t had them specifically pointed out to us at any Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant, I’ve encountered ayib several times before. It is much milder than this was, more like cottage cheese in flavor. If you like plain yogurt (which I do), you’ll be fine with this more intensely-flavored cheese.
We skipped dessert, as usual. Spouse had hot black tea (no Ethiopian spiced tea) and I had an Arnold Palmer, with our meal. Afterwards, Spouse ordered a latte, which was strong, low-acid Robusta beans.
Summary:
We’re a little disappointed there were no seafood dishes at all at Nardi. The fish curry at Asmara and the shrimp curry at Barcote/Berkeley are both wonderful with injera and each goes very well with the vegetarian samplers. However, the seasonings at Nardi are complex and intense, in a way that points up how almost all their competitors have modified the food to be cheaper – less complexity and depth of flavor, as well as cheaper ‘wet’ stews instead of the more traditional, but time-consuming, ‘dry-fry’ technique (invented by the Chinese, so far as is known, btw).
The injera is strongly sourdough and very good. We suspect that if you become a “regular” at Nardi, the waitstaff would be willing to get the kitchen to up the chile heat to normal Ethiopian standards. The cuisine is not a super-spicy one, a la Thai or Mexican, but traditionally the chile level for “super hot” might reach a Level 8 on our scale of 1-10 Chiles, whereas this was a more modest 6 or 6.5, at most.
We would be happy to return, although it doesn’t replace Asmara as our preferred Ethiopian restaurant. But Nardi is well worth trying – and soon – just to taste the complexity of what some of those popular stews really should taste like.
Two people, dinner: one special sampler, one meat sampler, three beverages. With tax but without tip, $78
